Not in the Pipeline : Plans for Water System Repairs Lack One Thing: $22 Million

When a 40-year-old municipal water well collapsed last month, it was visible evidence of a larger problem facing the city: Its aged water system, which serves 14% of the city, has sprung a leak.

The well was put back into service after a $15,000 patch job on a seam in its metal casing, but the system needs $22 million in improvements, officials said.

The problems are many. Three other 1950s-era wells also could fail. The system has virtually no storage, which would leave it without reserve water in case of a natural disaster, water contamination or a breakdown. The scattered service areas are not connected by transmission pipelines that would allow water to be moved within the system. Nor are they connected with Park Water and Southern California Water, two private companies that serve 79% of Norwalk’s 24,000 water customers. Parts of the city are also served by the cities of Santa Fe Springs and Cerritos and by the County Water Co.

Even before the well collapsed, the city and the Irvine-based HDR consulting firm had drawn up a 20-year master plan to bring the city’s system up to date. But the problem is finding the money to do it.

The plan calls for three underground reservoirs with a combined capacity of 11.5 million gallons. It proposes drilling a new well that could pump 2,200 gallons of water per minute, in addition to rehabilitating the four existing wells that pump up to 700 gallons a minute each.

A series of transmission and feeder lines would be constructed to connect the four geographically separate areas of the city system. The system also would be linked with the private companies for the first time. Undersized water lines would be replaced with larger ones, and the network of new and upgraded lines would result in better water pressure for firefighting in parts of central Norwalk not served by a fire service system.

City officials say the result would be an integrated water system--something the city has never had--even though the various water companies would continue to serve customers through their own pipelines.

But the $22-million price tag for a water system that serves only 3,336 customers, or 14% of the city’s water users, has relegated much of the work to a low rank on the city’s wish list.

Despite its long-term goals, the city is currently pushing only one phase of the plan, which focuses on acquiring land and designing the first set of improvements. The City Council will consider floating a $2.5-million bond issue next year, which would require an $8.23 increase in monthly water rates in July.

The bond issue would pay only for the design of a 2.5-million-gallon reservoir at Clarkdale Avenue and Sproul Street, together with new pipelines in the central service area and a connecting line to the water system in the north part of the city. A total of $500,000 would be used to maintain the present water system and upgrade fire hydrants.

Actual construction of new facilities would cost an additional $6.4 million, which also would be raised through bonds.

City Manager Richard R. Powers admits that the timing couldn’t be worse for rolling out such an expensive project.

“No one in Norwalk set a time frame for the system to explode in the middle of the worst recession since the 1930s,” he said.

One difficulty in selling the package is that, except for low water pressure, the problems have no immediate effect on customers. Officials say the water meets all state and federal standards and poses no health problems.

“People turn on a faucet, the water comes out, and no one knows there’s a problem,” said Steve Bucknam, assistant city manager and city engineer.

The city will “just keep working and trying to communicate to the community that it is a problem that must be solved,” Powers said.

The city is negotiating with Park Water and Southern California Water to help pay the interest on the bonds in exchange for greater storage capacity.

At public meetings held on the water plan, some city water customers--still smarting from a 38% water rate increase two months ago because of inflation and increased operating costs --blasted still another hike. They said the system is too small to handle such costs and they should be spread among all Norwalk water customers. Others want the system sold to one of the larger operators, whose revenues are sufficient to handle needed upgrades.

Officials are considering adding surcharges to all Norwalk water bills on grounds that the improvements to the water system would benefit the entire city.

A property tax assessment also is being considered, Bucknam said. Under state law, the council could impose such charges after public hearings, he said.

“These are hard economic times. It’s not an easy time to make people pay new money, but we have a serious problem,” Bucknam said.

Powers said the old wells are no longer reliable, and the water mains eventually will rupture, deteriorate and break.

“If we don’t get started engineering and planning, the date to solve the problems will be further out,” he said.

According to the consulting firm, the city system was cobbled together out of several private water companies formed after a World War II building boom began transforming Norwalk from an agricultural community into a suburb dotted with houses. By 1960, seven water companies were serving the city.

Starting in 1959, Norwalk began buying them up as they became available and eventually took over two private water companies and two water services operated by Los Angeles County and neighboring Santa Fe Springs.

Most of the system was developed in the 1940s and 1950s, when building, plumbing and fire codes were less stringent, according to the consultant.

Officials of Park and Southern California said they would be interested in buying some or all of the city system. The two already are upgrading their Norwalk services. Park has spent $1.5 million in the past six years on a water line. Southern California also is spending more than $1 million on improvements through 1995.

Powers said that while Norwalk officials prefer to run their own system so the city can play a role in future development, they are open to all alternatives, including sale. “The bottom line is that the people of Norwalk need a better water system than they have today,” he said.